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--- future_fabulators:lucid_dreaming_a_storyworld [2014-06-09 10:38] – maja
+++ future_fabulators:lucid_dreaming_a_storyworld [2014-07-23 08:40] – [What do we know?] alkan
@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 Brief: using scenario methods to design one or more storyworlds that can be used for a physical narrative and possibly a prehearsal (or the combination of both); the physical narrative should be light and portable, to be used in a hotel room and an exhibition in Austria and Cluj in September and October, and possibly in Belgium in the autumn. This all sounds easy enough, until the second part of the brief is introduced: the process should be akin to lucid dreaming…
-{{http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/jump.png}}
 [[:lucid_dreaming|lucid dreaming]]: awareness of the fact that you’re dreaming
@@ Line 11: / Line 7: @@
   * first thing to do is to broaden your awareness even before you fall asleep
   * asleep, dreaming - becoming aware of dreaming, observing it as it comes, without interfering
-  * gradually if you want to you can begin to steer it.
+  * gradually if you want to you can begin to steer it
   * make your own reality
 translation into the scenario process
@@ Line 21: / Line 17: @@
 for participants:
-  * the methods used shouldn’t really matter. you also don’t have to know exactly what happens next: as in dreams, go with the flow and try to be as open as possible.
+  * the methods used shouldn’t really matter. you also don’t have to know exactly what happens next: as in dreams, go with the flow and try to be as open as possible
-  * today is less about 'understanding exactly what’s going on' and more about trusting your gut feelings and unconscious mind   * letting ideas flow from you and through you - try not to block anything that comes to mind. do not worry about anything seeming silly, stupid, or unrelated - nothing you do or say today can fall into those categories.
+  * today is less about "understanding exactly what’s going on" and more about trusting your gut feelings and unconscious mind
+  * letting ideas flow from you and through you - try not to block anything that comes to mind. do not worry about anything seeming silly, stupid, or unrelated - nothing you do or say today can fall into those categories
   * if something feels uncomfortable or makes you insecure, try letting go of these feelings and approach every exercise with curiosity - "the beginners’ mind"; if it doesn’t work after a while, feel free to step out and take some distance for a while, then come back…
   * let your mind loose and watch your inhibitions melt away
   * trust yourself, trust the people around you, trust the process
 Process: [[scenario_building_as_lucid_dreaming]]
+{{http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/jump.png}}
@@ Line 34: / Line 36: @@
 We know that there are a few objects in this world:
-  * shoes
+  * Shoes
-  * soft wool
+  * Soft wool
-  * a heavy relationship with a father and family (not mother)
+  * A heavy relationship with a father and family (not mother)
-  * roses
+  * Roses
-  * mint
+  * Mint
-  * empty void
+  * Empty void
-  * a car-key for a big car that can move lots of people
+  * A car key for a big car that can move lots of people
-  * ice cube (melting)
+  * Ice cube (melting)
-  * ink and paint dribbling on pebbles
+  * Ink and paint dribbling on pebbles
-  * a box
+  * A box
-  * sparkling powder
+  * Sparkling powder
-  * dragonfly wings
+  * Dragonfly wings
-  * small mechanical devices
+  * Small mechanical devices
-  * bottle of gin
+  * Bottle of gin
-  * a big and heavy photocopier
+  * A big and heavy photocopier
 ==== What can we assume? ====
@@ Line 59: / Line 60: @@
   * dragonflies have wings
   * dragonflies might be larger than in our world, perhaps helicopter-sized
-  * the smells are heavy and sticky - a mix of shoes and roses...
+  * the smells are heavy and sticky - a mix of shoes and roses…
   * there might be an apothecary on a ship (a ferry?) at sunrise
   * people might be sipping gin at sunset
-  * there is a magic box, that can bring us things we want at any moment: the world has magical underpinnings and changing situations
+  * there is a magic box that can bring us things we want at any moment: the world has magical underpinnings and changing situations
   * there is a dusty grave
   * tiny mechanical insects dance on an ice-cube
   * one family lives in this world, they are cobblers with a shoe factory
-  * its' a non-plastic world
+  * it's a non-plastic world
   * people take drugs, sparkly ones
   * there might be a large building, something like Cleopatra's palace
   * there is an x-ray station and drivable photocopiers, like giant cars
   * the world is predominantly translucent, except for the shoes
-  * there are many large soft beds around, mobile, perhaps in cars. mother might be in the bed, with a bottle of gin.
+  * there are many large soft beds around, mobile, perhaps in cars; mother might be in the bed, with a bottle of gin
   * tools (some rusty) are scattered around the place
   * there is a hornets' nest
   * nanotechnology rules the world
-  * it looks a bit like Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age
+  * it looks a bit like Neal Stephenson's //Diamond Age//
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-We have landed on the endless peninsula with a shoreline that is neither land nor sea. The shoreline is sometimes smooth, other times rough, with waves breaking on rocks. The atmosphere is thick and woollen in this land of sunrise and twilight. Light is heavy and laden with golden dust that sediments on hidden graves. When darkness comes, the world sparkles. The air fills with mechanical insects collecting the sparkling dust as drugs. Aside from the buzzing of the insects at night, there is an eery noiseless quality to the peninsula. Occasionally the silence is pierced by small, medium and large voices, by faint dripping, drifting and echoing sounds.
+We have landed on the endless peninsula with a shoreline that is neither land nor sea. The shoreline is sometimes smooth, other times rough, with waves breaking on rocks. The coastline is sprinkled with geothermal hotsprings, rigged with mechanical contraptions. The vegetation is weird - machinic and brown in most places, except for large, green tumbleweed pockets of nature, propelled by mechanics. You can see them tumbling across the landscape in search of water, or rolling towards the golden centre. There is water everywhere on the coast, while the centre is barren and dusty. The coast is on the tropical equatorial, while moving in both direction towards the  poles there is nothing but desert. The wind sweeps from the coast inland, blowing orange dust and tumbleweed-like mechanical pockets of tropical nature across the peninsula.
-Things are built rather than grown, there are canals lit by giant candelabra, the rolling hills are made of shoes. There are very few plants and animals around, and only in secret pockets of nature. Living flora and fauna, as well as and ancient human graves are sought after by mechanical dragon-flies, scanning across fragmented and dispersed nature. An apothecary of species is hovering above the world, swirling through the mist on giant dragonfly-propellers. In the apothecary, intricate nano-machinery works on replicating rapidly disappearing lifeforms and maintain the populations’ health. The world is criss-crossed with helicopters’ landing strips allowing the dragonfly apothecary to circle in on any species in need of replication. One of the endangered species are humans - shabby, clean, healthy and curious creatures that drift aimlessly, often wearing only shoes.
+The atmosphere is thick and woolen in this land of permanent sunrise and twilight. It is never completely dark nor bright, but there is a sense of continuous change from golden orange to silvery sparkles. The sun and moon are visible at the same time. Light is heavy and laden with golden dust that sediments on hidden graves. When darkness comes, the world sparkles. The air fills with mechanical insects collecting the sparkling dust as drugs. Aside from the buzzing of the insects at night, there is an eery noiseless quality to the peninsula. Occasionally the silence is pierced by small, medium and large voices, by faint dripping, drifting and echoing sounds.
-The landscapes are surreal (from the dreamers’ point of view), unnatural and complicated. Everything is in motion. Infrastructure and places float to you. The movement is mechanical, but also fluid - an insectoid dance of machines and liquids. The majority of floating places are bars, saunas (actually hornets’ nests) and huge soft beds shaped like fluffy duvets. The land is covered in scattered tools: both newly built and frequently used, as well as old, rusty, forgotten tools.
+Things are built rather than grown, there are canals lit by giant candelabra, the rolling hills are made of shoes. There are very few plants and animals around, and only in secret pockets of nature. Living flora and fauna, as well as and ancient human graves are sought after by mechanical dragon-flies, scanning across fragmented and dispersed nature. An apothecary of species is hovering above the world, swirling through the mist on giant dragonfly-propellers. In the apothecary, intricate nano-machinery works on replicating rapidly disappearing lifeforms and maintain the populations’ health. The world is crisscrossed with helicopters’ landing strips allowing the dragonfly apothecary to circle in on any species in need of replication. One of the endangered species are humans - shabby, clean, healthy and curious creatures that drift aimlessly, often wearing only shoes.
+The landscapes are surreal (from the dreamers’ point of view), unnatural and complicated, reminiscent of Balinese Steam Punk: hot and steamy, lush and decaying. Everything is in motion. The sparse human habitation is scattered across floating settlements. Infrastructure and places float to you. The movement is mechanical, but also fluid - an insectoid dance of machines and liquids. The majority of floating places are bars, saunas (actually hornets’ nests) and huge soft beds shaped like fluffy duvets. The land is covered in scattered tools: both newly built and frequently used, as well as old, rusty, forgotten tools. Everything is made from metal and various unknown organic compounds. There is no plastic whatsoever.
 Across the floating peninsula hover many roads, all leading from the many gin distilleries to dusty cocktail bars. On the roads drive giant photo-copiers that print spacious two-dimensional cars. One of the strangest contraptions on the peninsula is a floating palace that looks x-rayed under sunlight. From outside it appears like a translucent box standing on an ice-cube. From inside its walls are built of wood and xrays, its windows are covered by leather. Its origins are unclear (there are conspiracy theories about whether it had been discovered or rebuilt). In the present there are only parts of the palace in use. One part is a news-agency, another -of course- a cocktail bar, from which all other bars are replicated.
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-{{>https://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/14372792103/}} \\
+{{>https://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/14166028100/}} \\
+**A Twitchers' daily routine**
-==== Dreamers' Experiences ====
+As one of the inhabitants of the peninsula we describe the daily routine of a so-called "Twitcher". Twitchers are these inhabitants, who go and see some ID-traders to speed up, as well as individually determine the outcome of their next shapeshifting process. The defiance of the tenor of events harbors certain risks, as one example the being stuck in-between shapes, not nearly being only a bad thing to happen, still not always desired.
-{{>https://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/14166028100/}} \\
+Our twitcher in question used to be a human being working a long phase already in the health-maintenance center. He was surrounded with all sorts of creatures in his professional life and over time he developed a profound admiration towards the dragonflies. These creatures, graceful and intelligent, having a rather high status on the peninsula. Amongst other skills they are having the ability to produce a certain golden powder, some sort of a "magical dust" which provides essential elements for the environmental condition, which makes life as such possible on the peninsula.
+Our twitcher, badly wanting to be a dragonfly happened to get stuck in a stage not being human anymore nor being a dragonfly to its full extent. Looking like (except a few human features) one though, even producing the dust, he was condemned to eliminate the dust himself, since it was a valueless one, not being needed for the environment, therefor not being consumed by it. This resulted in him needing a certain "dedusting-machinery" to constantly clean his bronchial tubes to not choke, grown into his body and hovering around him all the time.
+One of the advantages he gained through being trapped in this twixt human - dragonfly stage is, that he didn't loose his memory and his consciousness toward being a human, as well as he reached full awareness of being a dragonfly. A benefit appreciated by the population of the peninsula. On one side, he is a perfect supplier for "humankind" stories, collected by the librarians which try to build up a stock of "shape-history". At the other side, he is able to compare both phases very directly. This makes him, especially for others planning to shape shift on purpose a very crucial information-deliverer.
+Being a twitcher since only a short time his daily routine could look like the following: Waking up in the morning, still being overwhelmed with dreams and memories about his former human phase, he proceeds to the library where these stories and dreams are written down. Only slowly getting used to the constant "deduster company" he takes a lot of breaks, rests on those fluffy beds floating by. Informed by longstanding twitchers about his precious knowledge regarding the comparison he is in search for an office to offer (sell?) his newly gained knowledge as a consultant for "on-purpose-shape shifters". As the castle, looking like Cleopatra palace, was recommended as a possible site (lots of empty space is available in there, since only the news agency and a single bar are placed in it), he enters as it is moving by one of the davenports he rests on. Following all the established rituals, needed to be fulfilled before you are allowed in, he experiences an intense detoxication due the ritualized "Gin-Bath". Wandering through the castle he finds several spots he could see as possibilities for his planned venture. Since he doesn't like overhasty decisions, he takes notes on plus & minus, takes a drink in the "origin - bar" and wanders off again to rest another while before participating the weekly meeting of the twitchers for social interaction and exchange of experiences. He likes these creatures, being trapped somewhere in-between, still trying to get the most positive out of their situation. He falls asleep, dreaming about his former routines in the health-maintenance...
+**A Young Shapeshifter**
+A normal morning for the clan, a big question for our juvenile protagonist.
+Transcarnation
+There is a yearning for adventure, a feeling for history, a sense of danger.
+Vessel Living
+A clan of 28 persons.
+A romance.
+Our protagonist feels not taken seriously, wants to belong, wants to somehow prove their worth and worthiness.
+An insider.
+A need to improve contributions.
+Wants to stay put, there are stories of dangers.
+There is the powder. Our protagonist has just receoived it with the morning dragonfly. Will they take it?
+The moment: enjoying morning gin. This is breakfast.
+The question: what to do next. Reflections upon the day ahead.
+Dear Diary. writing in a device. An action to organise thoughts.
+Phasebook.
+In the morning dragonfly a letter and a powder to slow the transition. The Transcarnation.
+Morning Gin with lover, a colection of vines. Next transcarnation will be away from a state able to water them and care for them. Maybe not even able to be intertwined. But no fear, the clan will care for the vine. Nevertheless.
+Can our protagonist make a decision for the vines as well? Togethernjess, but they complement one another. Are the vines changing? Is that just their interpretation?
+The Shiftreport.
+The Dustr can hold on to him for a little while.
+On the vessel, looking out over the lush landscape, sipping gin. The rest of the clan is asleep. Chatting with Inanimates.
+That which is LUW - Lost Upon Waking.
+Is consciousness a technology?
+==== Dreamers' Experiences ====
+{{>https://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/14372792103/}} \\